Monitors: The Bigger the Better?
Om Malik is asking the question, “is bigger (monitor) better?” It’s inspired by An Apple Sponsored study that suggests bigger is indeed better.
Joe upgraded to a 24″ Dell widescreen recently. He’s pushing hard for the rest of us to do the same. Daniel is always preaching about productivity gains from multiple monitors. Personally I get by on a Dell Trinitron 21″…someday the radiation will probably kill me, but until I start growing extra appendages this setup works just fine for me.
What do you like? One big monitor? Two monitors? How about you laptops users and mobile workers out there…are you frustrated by one small screen?
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10:37 am
Preaching: There is a ton of research online that shows that multiple monitors increase productivity.
However, multiple monitors do strain your video card’s performance, and large LCD monitors (over 24 inch) sometimes require two DVI connectors compared to one. Most video cards do not have two DVI connectors.
11:20 am
Recently my dell trinitron 21″ died (sad day) so I was torn between multiple monitors or a new 20+/- flat panel. For the money, my new 20″ samsung ended being a better deal. I could continue running 1600×1200 res, or 1,920,000 total pixels of room. Two 17″ lcd’s running 1024×768 (x2) is only 1,572,864 total pixels. I like the large, higher res monitor.
12:19 pm
Plus if you grow more apendages then you’ll get more done anyways, well.. as long as they are functional apendages
I think it depends on what you are doing, you can get to a point where it’s actually hurting your production since you have to drag longer and further and potentially use your mouse for longer periods, which is bad also.
1:35 am
A few months ago I was working on a 21″ widescreen lcd and 19″ crt. That was an awesome setup. Generally, working with 2 monitors is the ideal setup for me.
As a designer/web developer, I love being able set up the screens as I want them.
And recently my crt died (also a sad day). So now I’m just working on the lcd. Which is fine because it’s pretty big but I am looking to get another one.
I suppose, in the end. I not only want it bigger, but more than one!
8:58 am
Hmmm… I reckon what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you. Not having ever worked on a large monitor (larger than a 17″ MacBook Pro) I guess I don’t know any better. I’m still productive, I just work a different way.
Having said that, the 24″ Dell widescreens are a sight to behold.
5:24 pm
I picked up the 24″ Dell last week for about $718 CAD (25% off).
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=CADHS1&sku=320-4335
Money well spent.
1:57 am
I used to hook my PowerMac up to 2 20″ Cinema Displays. Since I got the MacBook Pro (only one dual-DVI port), I ditched the 2 20’s for 1 30″. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back. It definitely makes working MUCH easier.
5:05 pm
[...] They also added these nifty buttons to increase and decrease the size of your text which can be helpful for accessibility purposes or if you have a very large monitor. [...]
10:02 pm
For anyone who wants a fairly large LCD without dropping much cash, take a look at the Acer AL2223WD / 22″ Wide. We just ordered two for the office. Each one was roughly $280 after rebate at TigerDirect.
7:29 am
I am firmly in the multiple monitors camp (which Macs have supported since the late 1980s). For QMD development, I use two setups.
Home office: 2 20-inch Cinema displays. I’d use three but the aesthetics prevent it.
Office office: 2 17-inch NECs on either side and a 20 inch NEC in the middle as main work screen. This is a legacy setup (17 inch screens came first) and has some minor issues because of the asymmetry of the displays.
The advantage is to have code up and running in one screen and browser in another. Make a small change and look at it immediately without flipping back and forth from one window to another.
WIth a third monitor, it’s even better. I can either (a) put up an alternative browser or (b) keep lower priority aysnchronous apps like IM, E-mail, Itunes in view, but out of the way.
11:55 am
[...] Mike made a post a while back ago about productivity and bigger monitors, but two monitors can do a good job if you want to avoid buying a bigger monitor. The kicker is that I don’t have to use each monitor for separate applications. Sometimes I drag the window so it takes up both screens. This can sometimes be useful for viewing database tables or excel spread sheets with lots of columns. [...]